Trump: Israel’s Safety Important to Both US, Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at news conference following summit in Helsinki, July 16 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in Helsinki following his talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday (July 16) that Israel’s safety is important to both world leaders.

Speaking at a joint news conference together with Putin after the summit, Trump said bluntly in response to a question about Syria, “President Putin also is helping Israel. And we both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu, and they would like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel.

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“So in that respect we absolutely would like to work in order to help Israel, and Israel will be working with us, so both countries would work jointly.”

Trump said that a great deal of progress has been made in in certain sections of Syria with the “eradication of ISIS, we’re about 98 percent, 99 percent there,” adding that Russia had helped the United States with, “in certain respects.”

He went on to say, “Working with Israel is a great thing and creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much.”

Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.